Building a Home for Kestrels

by: Ross Hall
SPRING 1994

North America's smallest and most common bird of prey is also the most handsome. Only 25 cm in length, the American kestrel (Falco sparverius) is reddish-brown and ashy-blue in colour and has a black and white face pattern.

The American kestrel is similar to the common and lesser kestrels, but is a different species. The name kestrel is likely derived from the Old French word cresserelle, which means crest and refers to the reddish-brown back and crown patch.

Once called the sparrow hawk, the name was changed to kestrel because these birds primarily eat insects, especially grasshoppers, crickets and beetles. They do prey upon mice, frogs, small snakes, and small birds. Technically, the kestrel is a falcon not a hawk. Falcons have long, pointed wings, rapid wing strokes, and they do not soar as high as hawks.

Kestrels are found in open country because of their choice of food. They are abundant in agricultural areas with scattered woodlots and trees, shelterbelts, meadows, highway right-of-ways, pastures, and hay fields. They are frequently seen sitting on powerlines along highways or hovering on rapidly beating wings above fields. From their location, they dive to the ground to catch their prey.

These small birds are cavity nesters. They use abandoned woodpecker nests or other cavities they fit in and that are close to their feeding areas. In many areas, the lack of suitable nest cavities limits the number of kestrels. If interested in undertaking a worthwhile project, you can make your own kestrel box and place it in suitable habitat. Follow the directions and illustrations at the end of the article.

In 1993, Department of Lands and Forestry and North Colchester Forest Cooperative staff put up 40 kestrel boxes in rural areas near Tatamagouche. Kestrels used 11 of these boxes, with 48 young being born. Staff banded the young for future identification.

If making your own nest box, it should be put up before the end of April. This allows kestrels time for their courtship and to select a nest. They lay three to five eggs on decayed wood chips in the last two weeks of May. The eggs hatch in 29 to 31 days and the young are fed in the box for another 30 days. Young kestrels leave the nest between July 15 and 30.

Place the nest box in relatively open country on a tree or post at a height of 3 to 9 metres. Kestrels use sites abandoned telephone poles between an abandoned railway and a field. They also nest in large aspen trees at the edge of a field or in groves in the centre of a field. Do not us N.S. Power poles for your own safety and that of the linemen.

Starlings also like kestrel nest boxes. Starlings and one hornet's nest used 7 of the department's 40 boxes. Starlings are normally an urban species, but they are commonly found near farm buildings where they can find spilled livestock feeds. A good solution is to place the nest box at a distance from barns or human dwellings. If starlings do use the box, you can settle for a family of these birds or you can remove their nests and eggs every week or 10 days.

Spring will soon be here, so you should soon take up your hammer and saw if you intend to have a nest box up when the kestrels arrive in April. These small birds are tolerant of an occasional disturbance, so you can place your ladder up to the nest box in early July and have a quick look at the young.

Three to five young kestrels live in a nest box and eat anything from beetles to salamanders. They can make a mess in the box, so after they leave replace the sawdust or wood chips for next year.

Make your own kestrel nesting box and place it in habitat where there birds live.
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